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jesterladyficPart One
Part Two: Keeping a Silence
Title from Keats
i
2071
Claire hurried through the double doors as she caught sight of a white covered back.
“Tanya!” she called.
Tanya turned and greeted the small blonde trying to catch up with her.
“Hey, Mom,” she said quietly. “Here for the boys?”
“It’s my day.” Claire grinned. “How are they doing?”
“As well as can be expected at their age,” was the answer. “But their day will come, sooner rather than later is my uneducated guess.”
“So all that education your father and I paid for was worth something,” Claire said sarcastically.
“You always have to make fun.”
Tanya sighed.
“You may look old enough to be my mother, but show some respect for the elderly parent here,” Claire teased.
“Hey, My’s been working on me,” Tanya said shortly. “I don’t look that bad, do I?”
“Relax, Ty. You don’t look a day over thirty five.”
“Yet I am many days over it,” Tanya said as she pushed open the door to the hospital room Claire frequented every Tuesday afternoon.
“Hey, guys,” Claire said as she sat down between the two beds and waved goodbye to her daughter.
“Claire dear, so lovely to see you,” Simon puffed through the wire in his nose.
“You know I never miss our days.”
“I have looked forward to our reading,” Monty said enthusiastically, trying to steady his shaking hand with his other equally shaky one as it brought the Jell-O toward his mouth.
“I’m always here for my brothers,” Claire said, reaching up to help him. “You got to treasure what you have while you have it.”
A few hours later Claire got up to leave, both of her brothers having gone to sleep a good forty five minutes after she started reading. She smoothed back the hair from their foreheads and kissed them. She still had something from her old life to hold onto even if she had had to bury a mother, brother, two fathers, and a husband.
But it was time to leave and Claire rushed to go. Peter was due that night and she wasn’t sure if he would be teleporting or flying. Either way she didn’t want to miss him. On the news over the last few weeks there had been a large outbreak of unexplained fires and she'd wanted his help in figuring out why. He had agreed to come and help her stop it in exchange for a home cooked meal. She smiled as she half ran down the hallway. She knew what he’d say when he ate it. The same thing he always said. That the only power he wanted to have but didn’t was the ability to cook.
Something hard stopped her train of thought. Claire looked up in shock and was horrified to see she’d run right into someone without looking.
“I’m so sorry,” she stammered.
The young man in front of her shook his longish hair.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said calmly.
He looked like he didn’t get shaken a lot. But then again, with the caveman like growth on his face, it would be hard to tell his facial expressions.
“I didn’t see you. I was just in there and now I have to get home and so I didn’t look and I’m Claire, by the way, and I’m so sorry-“ Claire stopped as she noticed the earpieces stuck in both ears. “-And you’re not even listening to me, so I’ll just go.”
“I’m very good at multi-tasking, Claire,” he said, turning his eyes to look at hers. “I’m Karl. It’s dangerous meeting you.”
“Agreed,” Claire said, a little shaken.
He had really nice eyes - about the only thing you could see on his face. But what shook her was a divided feeling in the pit of her stomach. He looked so young to her, like a child, though he must be about thirty, and the arrogance of his manner was insulting. But he made her knees weak at the same time and she felt intrigued by his placid nature.
“I won’t keep you from having to get home,” he said.
Claire stared a little blankly.
“Oh, right,” she agreed. “I’m sorry; I’m a little spacey today. It was nice to meet you, Karl.”
He gave her a little nod that looked like it was supposed to be some sort of courtly gesture, though in society its brevity might appear rude.
Claire’s brain kicked into over gear as she walked home.
***
Claire and Peter moved together quickly through the burning building. Their movements were smooth and effortless. They worked together like the team that they were but Claire always felt the absence of the people who had worked with them and were now gone.
Peter was probably thinking the same thing. It had only been fifteen years since Nathan had died and Claire knew he still felt it. Once Nathan had accepted his powers, the two of them had been a great team and she’d lost count of the number of times they’d saved the world.
“I hear some heartbeats,” Peter said suddenly.
Claire paused and absently slapped out the flames that had caught fire on her sleeve. She felt the familiar sensation of the skin healing.
“Where are they?”
“One upstairs, one to your right.”
“Well, you’re better at the getting places quickly,” Claire said, already heading to the right, knowing he would be gone.
Dodging falling debris, feeling the heat full in her face, she stepped into the room and quickly located the dark form lying on the floor.
Grimacing at the weight, she quickly pulled him into a fireman’s hold. She’d gotten really good at it over the years. Still, she staggered. Deciding she couldn’t carry him down the stairs, she leapt out the window, taking his full weight on her as they landed on the hard ground, thankful that they had only been on the second floor and not the top.
She still felt her ribs break and winced as the burns on her face began to heal. The man on top of her blinked and gasped in surprise as he opened his eyes and saw the completely odd sight of her face fixing itself back to normal.
She sighed and gently pushed him off her and continued popping her ribs back into place.
“You aren’t supposed to be able to do that,” he murmured from his position on the ground.
“Yet here I am, seventy odd years later,” she said busily.
“Claire?”
She slightly recognized the voice and found to her surprise that it was Karl she’d rescued.
“Oh,” she said. “Um, hi. This is slightly awkward.”
“No kidding,” he said and started to drift out of consciousness.
Claire scowled because she was going to have to carry him now.
“Super healing doesn't equal super strength, buddy,” she muttered.
“Claire,” Peter said as she started to pick Karl up. She turned and saw him half supporting a young girl and pushing a disheveled young man in front of him. “Found your fire starter.”
“Finally,” she said. “Here, carry him, will you? I almost broke my back.”
“Would it have mattered?” murmured a half-conscious Karl.
Most of the people had vacated the building when the fire alarms had started. Karl and the girl were the only ones with damage serious enough to warrant a fast Peter teleport to the hospital. They did it from the shadows after Peter left the arsonist with the cops.
At the ER Claire and Peter were relieved to find that both of the people they’d saved were going to be fine.
“So you know him?” Peter asked casually.
“Bumped into him when I visited the boys.”
“Funny how we still call them that when they look like our grandpas.”
Peter smiled.
“Yeah, the wonderful irony of forever youth,” Claire surmised.
“So, this guy then,” Peter persisted. “Does he get a home cooked meal too?”
“Maybe,” Claire said non-committedly. “If he wanted one.”
“Be a fool not to,” Peter replied.
“You’re nice,” Claire told him, leaning into his arm, “and I’m tired. I just want to check on them and then we’ll go home where your meal is already cooked.”
“I’ll take the girl,” Peter said, running off before she could hit him.
Claire slowly entered Karl’s room where the doctors had left him stabilized.
“Hey,” she whispered when she saw he was awake, “I just wanted to check on you before I went home.”
“Some motherly instinct perhaps?” Karl retorted with a raspy voice.
“Motherly?” Claire questioned as she gestured to her soot laden, but perfectly young looking body.
“I heard you say you were seventy,” he said seriously.
“I think seventy-nine actually,” she replied, sitting down at the foot of the bed. “But I’m getting old so it’s hard to keep track. Still, I think you mean grandmotherly.”
“What are you?” was his next question.
“A human being,” was her reply. He just gave her a look. It was odd, but it was such a personal look, she thought. Like he already knew her but didn’t care. She didn’t like it. “I can heal,” she answered his unspoken question. “Meaning, I can’t die, not even of old age.”
“That sucks,” he said quietly.
“You’ve no idea,” she said just as quietly.
“Why are you here?” he said after a moment. “I don’t even know you.”
“Don’t you have any family?”
“None that can come here,” he said.
“Right then.” She stood up. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Why? I don’t want you to come. You’re a stranger.”
“Because everyone needs someone sometime,” she said perkily. “There’s a little bit of grandmotherly advice for you.”
She waved goodbye and left to join Peter who was waiting outside the room.
***
Karl was really drowsy from the medication they'd doped him with and fell asleep soon after Claire left, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the small, blonde woman who’d saved his life and was three times his age. It was bad enough he had to come to a hospital and that his apartment had burned down. Now, he was intimidated by her and intrigued by her, but he couldn’t show either emotion. It just wasn’t in his nature. Hopefully, she would just go away.
Karl decided that if Claire did come, which he doubted, that he would be as rude as possible to get her to leave. Childish even. Maybe it would help her realize the difference between them.
ii
Karl was wide awake when Claire came back to visit him having said goodbye to Peter who had another emergency on the other side of the world. She was used to him popping in and out of her life.
Karl made a face at her.
“Are you five?” she asked in amusement as she sat down beside the bed.
“Last I checked.”
“Well, I never raised a boy,” Claire said thoughtfully, “but I did have two girls, so I know something about children. Since you don’t have a mother, I guess I’ll have to take the job.”
“I have a mother,” Karl said shortly.
“Where is she?” Claire asked gently.
“Remember where we met?” he answered and turned to the window.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “My brothers are in there.”
“Your brothers?” Karl asked, as if interested in spite of himself.
Claire smiled, her story was pretty amazing.
“Half brothers, actually,” she said. “Their dad was my father, but I was adopted.”
“Why?”
“That’s a rather complicated story that I don’t normally tell to strangers.”
“Even to one so awesome and cool as I?”
“Definitely not to one such as you,” Claire said.
“Do you normally sit at the bedsides of strange men who are young enough to be your son?”
“Ugh, you make me sound like a cougar.” Claire shuddered. “It’s weird,” she said in reflection, “I’ve thought about this a lot since my husband died-“
“I guess there probably had to be a guy involved to get two girls,” Karl observed dryly.
“Yes.” Claire smiled indulgently. “Anyway, I thought about this and I’ve decided that no matter how old I actually am, because of my youth, I’m going to be able to relate with people who look like they’re my age. It helps me be able to remember it or something. So, it doesn’t feel weird to be here with you.”
“Well, it’s weird to me,” Karl said. “It’s like you’re some cradle-robbing, freak of nature.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Claire said determinedly.
She didn’t know why she was so set on breaking past his defenses. But she remembered being a lonely young person too, until she’d met West. She didn’t want anyone to have to go through that without someone. It wasn’t necessarily that she wanted to be that person for Karl forever, she didn’t know; but she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind since she’d met him.
“If you have to,” Karl said stubbornly.
“You know, I’ve actually changed appearances a lot,” she told him. “West and I were beginning to look a little odd with the difference between us. Then we discovered my daughter could change people’s appearances. So, she made me a little older and him a little younger and we kept it up until the girls were older. Then I went back to like I am now and so did West. It was like when we first met. It was like a second youth. Then he died.”
Karl looked like he wanted to turn away and she was glad he didn't because his face softened at the tone of her voice. She wanted to roll her eyes; this man was so stubborn and didn't want to let on he had actual heart.
“I should probably get the doctor to get a restraining order against you,” he said.
“I think you generally go to a judge for that,” Claire said in a slightly testy tone.
She’d put up with a lot from him when she didn’t even have to. But after what she’d just said, that was a harsh thing to say.
“You’re quite a woman,” he finally said admiringly. “Most people run for the hills from me by now.”
“When you’ve saved the world as often as I have, a savage doesn’t bother you anymore.”
“Savage, is it?” Karl asked with a smile.
“It’s the beard.”
She gestured towards it.
Karl laughed.
“Pretty great beard though, huh?”
“Personally, I find stubble much more attractive.”
Karl's face contorted oddly. She thought about offering him a razor. It looked like he might actually take it.
“I’m a very natural guy.”
“I can tell.”
“Impressed, I bet.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half.”
Claire’s sarcasm knew no bounds.
Claire found that the longer you persisted in talking to him, Karl gradually stopped being belligerent. He actually answered her questions seriously. He had an awesome sense of humor and well educated opinions. There was maturity and depth to this man. If only he would stop insisting that he didn’t need anyone.
“Then why visit your mom?” she finally asked.
“She needs me,” was his curt answer and no more would he say on the subject.
Claire was surprised to find that she been talking to him for four hours.
“I get sick of most people usually long before the four hour mark,” he said.
“I'm not most people. I’ll be back tomorrow,” Claire said.
“I’ll be checked out by then,” Karl said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“My uncle can find anyone in the world,” Claire told him cheekily. “Don’t worry, I’ll find you.”
Karl looked like he wanted to say something, like he hoped that she would. But he didn't.
iii
True to her word Claire called Peter the next day and found out where Karl was staying until he got a new apartment. It was a little bit out of town, but she went there.
Karl didn't and did look surprised when she knocked on his door.
“I can’t believe you found me,” he said leaning against the doorjamb.
“If you would’ve asked my grandkids they would have told you I’m very reliable,” Claire told him. “And awesome at Hide and Seek. Can I come in?”
“Why?”
“Cause I want to.”
“I’m not really in a people mood right now,” Karl replied.
It looked like the truth. He'd told her that sometimes people, anyone, just grated on his nerves.
“Then I’ll come back tomorrow,” Claire said perkily. “Bye, Karl.”
She did come back tomorrow, and the next day and the next. The more they spent time together, the more Claire could not figure him out. One day he was a wonderful person to be around, full of fun humor and ready to engage with her. The next his cynicism overwhelmed her and she could barely stand to be near him. He went up and down and was the least consistent person, except that an isolation mood would eventually hit, that she’d ever met. But she was determined to get to the bottom of him.
***
Karl still didn’t know what to do with Claire. She would not leave him alone. He tried to make her go by being the most anti-social he’d ever been. But she wouldn’t. It confused him a lot. He found himself looking forward to her visits with an appetite he thought he didn’t possess. He thought about her at work and at home, when he was out and when he was in. Some days he was threatened by the way she ruined his solitary existence, others he realized how lonely he was when she left.
***
One day, Claire had been doing some shopping when she decided to visit Myan and her family. So, she cut across the park just as it started to snow. She set her bags down in wonder and stared up at the sky. Even after seventy plus years, she still marveled at snow, especially since she’d usually lived in warmer places her whole life. She twirled around a little, glad that the gloomy skies had kept most people indoors. When she stopped, she was a little out of breath and she panted as she picked up her bags. But she almost dropped them again when she realized Karl was standing there, watching her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you’re coming to me now?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I usually walk here on Saturdays.”
“Lucky me then,” Claire said cheerfully. “You can walk me to my daughter’s.”
“Oh, can I?” he asked sarcastically, but fell in step with her.
They walked along in silence for awhile before he asked her,
“Are you sure you’re seventy-nine?”
“Do you want to see my birth certificate?”
“You were twirling. Do seventy-nine year olds twirl?”
“This one does.”
“This one is an odd one,” he remarked.
“You probably say that cause of the whole not dying thing,” she said idly, actually inwardly calculating if the amount of meat she’d bought was enough.
“Because why would you spend your time with me?”
Claire turned to him, puzzled by the question.
“Well, I can give you some reasons not to, not the least of which is your arrogance and deliberate belligerence. But I just want to, Karl. I just care about you for some odd reason. Some very odd reason.”
“I guess intelligence didn’t come with the immortality then,” he said.
“Guess not,” Claire said, determined not to let him get her down today. “Why? Do you want me to stop coming to see you?”
Karl's expression looked like he was struggling with what to say.
“Do what you want to,” he said and shrugged. “It’s not like you would listen to me anyway.”
Claire thought she detected a slight vulnerability to his tone.
“Karl, are you getting attached to me?” she asked in teasing astonishment.
“You’re annoying and persistent,” he said in response.
“Are you avoiding the question?”
“What’s to avoid?”
“A very hard question to answer, apparently.”
“Just stop badgering me,” Karl said, obviously going for a teasing tone.
“I will, just tell me if you want me around.”
Karl didn't say anything for a long time. Claire could only imagine what was happening inside his head.
“I want you around,” he finally spit out. “I like you, Claire. I want to have you visit me.”
“Glad we have that settled,” Claire said triumphantly. “Now we can be friends.”
“No, Claire,” Karl said, rolling his eyes. “I finally admit something and you don’t even get it. I have feelings for you. I want more than friendship, though I don’t know what.”
Claire’s smiled faded as she saw the truth on his face. She’d conquered more than she knew. More than she’d hoped for.
“I can work with that,” she said, smiling again and reached up for him.
He put his hands gently on her cheeks as they kissed for the first time. It was light and simple and communicated hope.
“Will you just do one thing for me?” she asked, looking into his eyes. “Will you grow some stubble?”
Karl kissed her again in answer.
Claire felt the portion of her heart that had been frozen since West died begin to melt. She wouldn’t have believed she could have found two men, so unlike, that she loved. But she had.
iv
Karl had been trying to be in a relationship with Claire for three months. It had been the most wonderful time of his life. Someday, he thought, he might even take her to meet his mother. But today he was going over to her daughter’s house. That still threw him. He didn’t think he was old enough to be dating a woman who had a daughter at least fifteen years older than him.
It had been snowing for the last couple of days and Karl put on his favorite hoodie and listened to his music as he walked in the cold. The music helped the anxious feeling to disappear. Why did he care so much when he never had before?
Claire met him outside.
“Hey,” she said, sticking her arm in his. “Everyone’s here, all aglow, waiting to meet you.”
“This is weird, you know that, right?” he asked.
“It’s weird,” she agreed. “But look at it this way, you can get some grandkids.”
She was ridiculous, he decided.
They rounded the corner and Karl spotted a woman standing at the kitchen door, but her arm was all the way across the yard, taking something away from a little girl. He thought about running away.
“Everybody, this is Karl,” Claire announced.
All the little children came running at him. Karl stepped back a bit.
“Is he our new Grampa?” asked the little girl who’d apparently been naughty.
“No, Brittqany,” Claire said, kneeling down. “This is Karl and he’s a good friend of mine. You know what that means, right?”
“Snowball fight!” said the other little girl and the boys as they all cheered and rushed at Karl, knocking him down in the snow.
Brittqany led the charge and grabbed snow and rubbed it in Karl’s hair. He blinked in disbelief, soaked through, and being pelted with snow by a whole bunch of little children.
Something interesting happened to Karl at that moment. He found himself liking it. So he grinned and began chasing the kids around and playing with them. And he did it, not for Claire, and not because he could occasionally enjoy people for short periods of time, but because he wanted to.
“Kids, that’s enough.” Another woman appeared from the kitchen. “Brittqany, Jalisa, come inside. Morgan, Wesley, Timothy, come on. Your father said to come in and leave the poor man alone.”
The kids all groaned and went, one by one, dripping, into the house. Karl looked at Claire who had been standing there, laughing at him.
“Shut up, you,” he said good naturedly.
He walked over to her, soaking, and shook his hair all over her like a dog. She shrieked and tried to escape, but he grabbed her in a big bear hug, getting her thoroughly wet with his snow soaked coat.
“I think I love you,” he said softly into her ear.
Claire pulled back to look at him in amazement.
“Why, Karl,” she said, “you care.”
“You made me care,” he said grumpily. “I still haven’t forgiven you.”
“And I’ll never repent,” she said, putting her arms around him.
Karl struggled a moment before yielding.
“Please don’t.”
He pulled her closer and kissed her.
v
2073
“I’ve been here too many times,” Claire said.
She really had. She and Karl stood on a high hill overlooking the funeral going on below.
“You’re gonna have more,” Karl reminded her.
“I didn’t need to hear that right now,” Claire said in exasperation. “I know you want to be a realist, but now is the time to be sincere Karl. The one that comes out every fifty years or so.”
“You’re the only one I’d do it for,” Karl said as he pulled her against him for a hug. She wrapped herself in his familiar presence, breathing in the scent of the sweatshirt he rarely ever took off. “You ready to go down?” he asked.
She nodded, using the cuff of her shirt to wipe her eyes.
A puff of wind blew down as Peter alighted on the ground next to them.
“I can’t believe this day is here,” he said in greeting.
“I know.” Claire sighed. “But they were ready.”
“Useless platitudes, Claire.”
“Don’t take them away from her,” Karl said unexpectedly.
Claire smiled at him in thanks.
“Come on, Peter,” she said, taking his arm and walking with him down the hill. “They’re waiting.”
“I’m sorry,” he said as they went.
“I know,” she replied, “me too. I’ve lost all my brothers now.”
“You still got me,” Peter said.
“Technically, I think you’re still my uncle,” she replied.
He smiled at her and they made their way to the back of the funeral. It was hard not being able to be in front, but they didn’t exactly look as the world would expect Peter Petrelli and Claire Rosen to look, mainly dead.
***
Karl followed them down the hill slowly, taking his time. He disliked funerals immensely because people expected you to be weepy and sentimental which he could not force himself to do.
His mouth opened in a cavernous yawn, which he quickly covered up, hoping no one had seen.
Claire had looked back at that moment and saw. In spite of her sadness, he was glad she giggled at the deer caught in the headlights look on his face. Karl grinned guiltily at her. He came up to stand next to her and took her hand.
“This is where I want to be,” he whispered in her ear.
She squeezed his hand in response.
And Karl meant it. He’d never found one person with whom he could always be around. Claire was it and he looked at her face, still so young, even though Myan had aged it to match his. He knew right then that he would die and she would live on. It made him glad that he wished for her sake that it didn’t have to be that way. But he knew they both had counted the consequences and that this was where they were supposed to be. It didn’t matter how much she’d changed him or the continual shocks to his worldview he received. He loved her and he was never leaving.
Part Two: Keeping a Silence
Title from Keats
i
2071
Claire hurried through the double doors as she caught sight of a white covered back.
“Tanya!” she called.
Tanya turned and greeted the small blonde trying to catch up with her.
“Hey, Mom,” she said quietly. “Here for the boys?”
“It’s my day.” Claire grinned. “How are they doing?”
“As well as can be expected at their age,” was the answer. “But their day will come, sooner rather than later is my uneducated guess.”
“So all that education your father and I paid for was worth something,” Claire said sarcastically.
“You always have to make fun.”
Tanya sighed.
“You may look old enough to be my mother, but show some respect for the elderly parent here,” Claire teased.
“Hey, My’s been working on me,” Tanya said shortly. “I don’t look that bad, do I?”
“Relax, Ty. You don’t look a day over thirty five.”
“Yet I am many days over it,” Tanya said as she pushed open the door to the hospital room Claire frequented every Tuesday afternoon.
“Hey, guys,” Claire said as she sat down between the two beds and waved goodbye to her daughter.
“Claire dear, so lovely to see you,” Simon puffed through the wire in his nose.
“You know I never miss our days.”
“I have looked forward to our reading,” Monty said enthusiastically, trying to steady his shaking hand with his other equally shaky one as it brought the Jell-O toward his mouth.
“I’m always here for my brothers,” Claire said, reaching up to help him. “You got to treasure what you have while you have it.”
A few hours later Claire got up to leave, both of her brothers having gone to sleep a good forty five minutes after she started reading. She smoothed back the hair from their foreheads and kissed them. She still had something from her old life to hold onto even if she had had to bury a mother, brother, two fathers, and a husband.
But it was time to leave and Claire rushed to go. Peter was due that night and she wasn’t sure if he would be teleporting or flying. Either way she didn’t want to miss him. On the news over the last few weeks there had been a large outbreak of unexplained fires and she'd wanted his help in figuring out why. He had agreed to come and help her stop it in exchange for a home cooked meal. She smiled as she half ran down the hallway. She knew what he’d say when he ate it. The same thing he always said. That the only power he wanted to have but didn’t was the ability to cook.
Something hard stopped her train of thought. Claire looked up in shock and was horrified to see she’d run right into someone without looking.
“I’m so sorry,” she stammered.
The young man in front of her shook his longish hair.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said calmly.
He looked like he didn’t get shaken a lot. But then again, with the caveman like growth on his face, it would be hard to tell his facial expressions.
“I didn’t see you. I was just in there and now I have to get home and so I didn’t look and I’m Claire, by the way, and I’m so sorry-“ Claire stopped as she noticed the earpieces stuck in both ears. “-And you’re not even listening to me, so I’ll just go.”
“I’m very good at multi-tasking, Claire,” he said, turning his eyes to look at hers. “I’m Karl. It’s dangerous meeting you.”
“Agreed,” Claire said, a little shaken.
He had really nice eyes - about the only thing you could see on his face. But what shook her was a divided feeling in the pit of her stomach. He looked so young to her, like a child, though he must be about thirty, and the arrogance of his manner was insulting. But he made her knees weak at the same time and she felt intrigued by his placid nature.
“I won’t keep you from having to get home,” he said.
Claire stared a little blankly.
“Oh, right,” she agreed. “I’m sorry; I’m a little spacey today. It was nice to meet you, Karl.”
He gave her a little nod that looked like it was supposed to be some sort of courtly gesture, though in society its brevity might appear rude.
Claire’s brain kicked into over gear as she walked home.
***
Claire and Peter moved together quickly through the burning building. Their movements were smooth and effortless. They worked together like the team that they were but Claire always felt the absence of the people who had worked with them and were now gone.
Peter was probably thinking the same thing. It had only been fifteen years since Nathan had died and Claire knew he still felt it. Once Nathan had accepted his powers, the two of them had been a great team and she’d lost count of the number of times they’d saved the world.
“I hear some heartbeats,” Peter said suddenly.
Claire paused and absently slapped out the flames that had caught fire on her sleeve. She felt the familiar sensation of the skin healing.
“Where are they?”
“One upstairs, one to your right.”
“Well, you’re better at the getting places quickly,” Claire said, already heading to the right, knowing he would be gone.
Dodging falling debris, feeling the heat full in her face, she stepped into the room and quickly located the dark form lying on the floor.
Grimacing at the weight, she quickly pulled him into a fireman’s hold. She’d gotten really good at it over the years. Still, she staggered. Deciding she couldn’t carry him down the stairs, she leapt out the window, taking his full weight on her as they landed on the hard ground, thankful that they had only been on the second floor and not the top.
She still felt her ribs break and winced as the burns on her face began to heal. The man on top of her blinked and gasped in surprise as he opened his eyes and saw the completely odd sight of her face fixing itself back to normal.
She sighed and gently pushed him off her and continued popping her ribs back into place.
“You aren’t supposed to be able to do that,” he murmured from his position on the ground.
“Yet here I am, seventy odd years later,” she said busily.
“Claire?”
She slightly recognized the voice and found to her surprise that it was Karl she’d rescued.
“Oh,” she said. “Um, hi. This is slightly awkward.”
“No kidding,” he said and started to drift out of consciousness.
Claire scowled because she was going to have to carry him now.
“Super healing doesn't equal super strength, buddy,” she muttered.
“Claire,” Peter said as she started to pick Karl up. She turned and saw him half supporting a young girl and pushing a disheveled young man in front of him. “Found your fire starter.”
“Finally,” she said. “Here, carry him, will you? I almost broke my back.”
“Would it have mattered?” murmured a half-conscious Karl.
Most of the people had vacated the building when the fire alarms had started. Karl and the girl were the only ones with damage serious enough to warrant a fast Peter teleport to the hospital. They did it from the shadows after Peter left the arsonist with the cops.
At the ER Claire and Peter were relieved to find that both of the people they’d saved were going to be fine.
“So you know him?” Peter asked casually.
“Bumped into him when I visited the boys.”
“Funny how we still call them that when they look like our grandpas.”
Peter smiled.
“Yeah, the wonderful irony of forever youth,” Claire surmised.
“So, this guy then,” Peter persisted. “Does he get a home cooked meal too?”
“Maybe,” Claire said non-committedly. “If he wanted one.”
“Be a fool not to,” Peter replied.
“You’re nice,” Claire told him, leaning into his arm, “and I’m tired. I just want to check on them and then we’ll go home where your meal is already cooked.”
“I’ll take the girl,” Peter said, running off before she could hit him.
Claire slowly entered Karl’s room where the doctors had left him stabilized.
“Hey,” she whispered when she saw he was awake, “I just wanted to check on you before I went home.”
“Some motherly instinct perhaps?” Karl retorted with a raspy voice.
“Motherly?” Claire questioned as she gestured to her soot laden, but perfectly young looking body.
“I heard you say you were seventy,” he said seriously.
“I think seventy-nine actually,” she replied, sitting down at the foot of the bed. “But I’m getting old so it’s hard to keep track. Still, I think you mean grandmotherly.”
“What are you?” was his next question.
“A human being,” was her reply. He just gave her a look. It was odd, but it was such a personal look, she thought. Like he already knew her but didn’t care. She didn’t like it. “I can heal,” she answered his unspoken question. “Meaning, I can’t die, not even of old age.”
“That sucks,” he said quietly.
“You’ve no idea,” she said just as quietly.
“Why are you here?” he said after a moment. “I don’t even know you.”
“Don’t you have any family?”
“None that can come here,” he said.
“Right then.” She stood up. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“Why? I don’t want you to come. You’re a stranger.”
“Because everyone needs someone sometime,” she said perkily. “There’s a little bit of grandmotherly advice for you.”
She waved goodbye and left to join Peter who was waiting outside the room.
***
Karl was really drowsy from the medication they'd doped him with and fell asleep soon after Claire left, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the small, blonde woman who’d saved his life and was three times his age. It was bad enough he had to come to a hospital and that his apartment had burned down. Now, he was intimidated by her and intrigued by her, but he couldn’t show either emotion. It just wasn’t in his nature. Hopefully, she would just go away.
Karl decided that if Claire did come, which he doubted, that he would be as rude as possible to get her to leave. Childish even. Maybe it would help her realize the difference between them.
ii
Karl was wide awake when Claire came back to visit him having said goodbye to Peter who had another emergency on the other side of the world. She was used to him popping in and out of her life.
Karl made a face at her.
“Are you five?” she asked in amusement as she sat down beside the bed.
“Last I checked.”
“Well, I never raised a boy,” Claire said thoughtfully, “but I did have two girls, so I know something about children. Since you don’t have a mother, I guess I’ll have to take the job.”
“I have a mother,” Karl said shortly.
“Where is she?” Claire asked gently.
“Remember where we met?” he answered and turned to the window.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “My brothers are in there.”
“Your brothers?” Karl asked, as if interested in spite of himself.
Claire smiled, her story was pretty amazing.
“Half brothers, actually,” she said. “Their dad was my father, but I was adopted.”
“Why?”
“That’s a rather complicated story that I don’t normally tell to strangers.”
“Even to one so awesome and cool as I?”
“Definitely not to one such as you,” Claire said.
“Do you normally sit at the bedsides of strange men who are young enough to be your son?”
“Ugh, you make me sound like a cougar.” Claire shuddered. “It’s weird,” she said in reflection, “I’ve thought about this a lot since my husband died-“
“I guess there probably had to be a guy involved to get two girls,” Karl observed dryly.
“Yes.” Claire smiled indulgently. “Anyway, I thought about this and I’ve decided that no matter how old I actually am, because of my youth, I’m going to be able to relate with people who look like they’re my age. It helps me be able to remember it or something. So, it doesn’t feel weird to be here with you.”
“Well, it’s weird to me,” Karl said. “It’s like you’re some cradle-robbing, freak of nature.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Claire said determinedly.
She didn’t know why she was so set on breaking past his defenses. But she remembered being a lonely young person too, until she’d met West. She didn’t want anyone to have to go through that without someone. It wasn’t necessarily that she wanted to be that person for Karl forever, she didn’t know; but she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind since she’d met him.
“If you have to,” Karl said stubbornly.
“You know, I’ve actually changed appearances a lot,” she told him. “West and I were beginning to look a little odd with the difference between us. Then we discovered my daughter could change people’s appearances. So, she made me a little older and him a little younger and we kept it up until the girls were older. Then I went back to like I am now and so did West. It was like when we first met. It was like a second youth. Then he died.”
Karl looked like he wanted to turn away and she was glad he didn't because his face softened at the tone of her voice. She wanted to roll her eyes; this man was so stubborn and didn't want to let on he had actual heart.
“I should probably get the doctor to get a restraining order against you,” he said.
“I think you generally go to a judge for that,” Claire said in a slightly testy tone.
She’d put up with a lot from him when she didn’t even have to. But after what she’d just said, that was a harsh thing to say.
“You’re quite a woman,” he finally said admiringly. “Most people run for the hills from me by now.”
“When you’ve saved the world as often as I have, a savage doesn’t bother you anymore.”
“Savage, is it?” Karl asked with a smile.
“It’s the beard.”
She gestured towards it.
Karl laughed.
“Pretty great beard though, huh?”
“Personally, I find stubble much more attractive.”
Karl's face contorted oddly. She thought about offering him a razor. It looked like he might actually take it.
“I’m a very natural guy.”
“I can tell.”
“Impressed, I bet.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half.”
Claire’s sarcasm knew no bounds.
Claire found that the longer you persisted in talking to him, Karl gradually stopped being belligerent. He actually answered her questions seriously. He had an awesome sense of humor and well educated opinions. There was maturity and depth to this man. If only he would stop insisting that he didn’t need anyone.
“Then why visit your mom?” she finally asked.
“She needs me,” was his curt answer and no more would he say on the subject.
Claire was surprised to find that she been talking to him for four hours.
“I get sick of most people usually long before the four hour mark,” he said.
“I'm not most people. I’ll be back tomorrow,” Claire said.
“I’ll be checked out by then,” Karl said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“My uncle can find anyone in the world,” Claire told him cheekily. “Don’t worry, I’ll find you.”
Karl looked like he wanted to say something, like he hoped that she would. But he didn't.
iii
True to her word Claire called Peter the next day and found out where Karl was staying until he got a new apartment. It was a little bit out of town, but she went there.
Karl didn't and did look surprised when she knocked on his door.
“I can’t believe you found me,” he said leaning against the doorjamb.
“If you would’ve asked my grandkids they would have told you I’m very reliable,” Claire told him. “And awesome at Hide and Seek. Can I come in?”
“Why?”
“Cause I want to.”
“I’m not really in a people mood right now,” Karl replied.
It looked like the truth. He'd told her that sometimes people, anyone, just grated on his nerves.
“Then I’ll come back tomorrow,” Claire said perkily. “Bye, Karl.”
She did come back tomorrow, and the next day and the next. The more they spent time together, the more Claire could not figure him out. One day he was a wonderful person to be around, full of fun humor and ready to engage with her. The next his cynicism overwhelmed her and she could barely stand to be near him. He went up and down and was the least consistent person, except that an isolation mood would eventually hit, that she’d ever met. But she was determined to get to the bottom of him.
***
Karl still didn’t know what to do with Claire. She would not leave him alone. He tried to make her go by being the most anti-social he’d ever been. But she wouldn’t. It confused him a lot. He found himself looking forward to her visits with an appetite he thought he didn’t possess. He thought about her at work and at home, when he was out and when he was in. Some days he was threatened by the way she ruined his solitary existence, others he realized how lonely he was when she left.
***
One day, Claire had been doing some shopping when she decided to visit Myan and her family. So, she cut across the park just as it started to snow. She set her bags down in wonder and stared up at the sky. Even after seventy plus years, she still marveled at snow, especially since she’d usually lived in warmer places her whole life. She twirled around a little, glad that the gloomy skies had kept most people indoors. When she stopped, she was a little out of breath and she panted as she picked up her bags. But she almost dropped them again when she realized Karl was standing there, watching her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you’re coming to me now?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I usually walk here on Saturdays.”
“Lucky me then,” Claire said cheerfully. “You can walk me to my daughter’s.”
“Oh, can I?” he asked sarcastically, but fell in step with her.
They walked along in silence for awhile before he asked her,
“Are you sure you’re seventy-nine?”
“Do you want to see my birth certificate?”
“You were twirling. Do seventy-nine year olds twirl?”
“This one does.”
“This one is an odd one,” he remarked.
“You probably say that cause of the whole not dying thing,” she said idly, actually inwardly calculating if the amount of meat she’d bought was enough.
“Because why would you spend your time with me?”
Claire turned to him, puzzled by the question.
“Well, I can give you some reasons not to, not the least of which is your arrogance and deliberate belligerence. But I just want to, Karl. I just care about you for some odd reason. Some very odd reason.”
“I guess intelligence didn’t come with the immortality then,” he said.
“Guess not,” Claire said, determined not to let him get her down today. “Why? Do you want me to stop coming to see you?”
Karl's expression looked like he was struggling with what to say.
“Do what you want to,” he said and shrugged. “It’s not like you would listen to me anyway.”
Claire thought she detected a slight vulnerability to his tone.
“Karl, are you getting attached to me?” she asked in teasing astonishment.
“You’re annoying and persistent,” he said in response.
“Are you avoiding the question?”
“What’s to avoid?”
“A very hard question to answer, apparently.”
“Just stop badgering me,” Karl said, obviously going for a teasing tone.
“I will, just tell me if you want me around.”
Karl didn't say anything for a long time. Claire could only imagine what was happening inside his head.
“I want you around,” he finally spit out. “I like you, Claire. I want to have you visit me.”
“Glad we have that settled,” Claire said triumphantly. “Now we can be friends.”
“No, Claire,” Karl said, rolling his eyes. “I finally admit something and you don’t even get it. I have feelings for you. I want more than friendship, though I don’t know what.”
Claire’s smiled faded as she saw the truth on his face. She’d conquered more than she knew. More than she’d hoped for.
“I can work with that,” she said, smiling again and reached up for him.
He put his hands gently on her cheeks as they kissed for the first time. It was light and simple and communicated hope.
“Will you just do one thing for me?” she asked, looking into his eyes. “Will you grow some stubble?”
Karl kissed her again in answer.
Claire felt the portion of her heart that had been frozen since West died begin to melt. She wouldn’t have believed she could have found two men, so unlike, that she loved. But she had.
iv
Karl had been trying to be in a relationship with Claire for three months. It had been the most wonderful time of his life. Someday, he thought, he might even take her to meet his mother. But today he was going over to her daughter’s house. That still threw him. He didn’t think he was old enough to be dating a woman who had a daughter at least fifteen years older than him.
It had been snowing for the last couple of days and Karl put on his favorite hoodie and listened to his music as he walked in the cold. The music helped the anxious feeling to disappear. Why did he care so much when he never had before?
Claire met him outside.
“Hey,” she said, sticking her arm in his. “Everyone’s here, all aglow, waiting to meet you.”
“This is weird, you know that, right?” he asked.
“It’s weird,” she agreed. “But look at it this way, you can get some grandkids.”
She was ridiculous, he decided.
They rounded the corner and Karl spotted a woman standing at the kitchen door, but her arm was all the way across the yard, taking something away from a little girl. He thought about running away.
“Everybody, this is Karl,” Claire announced.
All the little children came running at him. Karl stepped back a bit.
“Is he our new Grampa?” asked the little girl who’d apparently been naughty.
“No, Brittqany,” Claire said, kneeling down. “This is Karl and he’s a good friend of mine. You know what that means, right?”
“Snowball fight!” said the other little girl and the boys as they all cheered and rushed at Karl, knocking him down in the snow.
Brittqany led the charge and grabbed snow and rubbed it in Karl’s hair. He blinked in disbelief, soaked through, and being pelted with snow by a whole bunch of little children.
Something interesting happened to Karl at that moment. He found himself liking it. So he grinned and began chasing the kids around and playing with them. And he did it, not for Claire, and not because he could occasionally enjoy people for short periods of time, but because he wanted to.
“Kids, that’s enough.” Another woman appeared from the kitchen. “Brittqany, Jalisa, come inside. Morgan, Wesley, Timothy, come on. Your father said to come in and leave the poor man alone.”
The kids all groaned and went, one by one, dripping, into the house. Karl looked at Claire who had been standing there, laughing at him.
“Shut up, you,” he said good naturedly.
He walked over to her, soaking, and shook his hair all over her like a dog. She shrieked and tried to escape, but he grabbed her in a big bear hug, getting her thoroughly wet with his snow soaked coat.
“I think I love you,” he said softly into her ear.
Claire pulled back to look at him in amazement.
“Why, Karl,” she said, “you care.”
“You made me care,” he said grumpily. “I still haven’t forgiven you.”
“And I’ll never repent,” she said, putting her arms around him.
Karl struggled a moment before yielding.
“Please don’t.”
He pulled her closer and kissed her.
v
2073
“I’ve been here too many times,” Claire said.
She really had. She and Karl stood on a high hill overlooking the funeral going on below.
“You’re gonna have more,” Karl reminded her.
“I didn’t need to hear that right now,” Claire said in exasperation. “I know you want to be a realist, but now is the time to be sincere Karl. The one that comes out every fifty years or so.”
“You’re the only one I’d do it for,” Karl said as he pulled her against him for a hug. She wrapped herself in his familiar presence, breathing in the scent of the sweatshirt he rarely ever took off. “You ready to go down?” he asked.
She nodded, using the cuff of her shirt to wipe her eyes.
A puff of wind blew down as Peter alighted on the ground next to them.
“I can’t believe this day is here,” he said in greeting.
“I know.” Claire sighed. “But they were ready.”
“Useless platitudes, Claire.”
“Don’t take them away from her,” Karl said unexpectedly.
Claire smiled at him in thanks.
“Come on, Peter,” she said, taking his arm and walking with him down the hill. “They’re waiting.”
“I’m sorry,” he said as they went.
“I know,” she replied, “me too. I’ve lost all my brothers now.”
“You still got me,” Peter said.
“Technically, I think you’re still my uncle,” she replied.
He smiled at her and they made their way to the back of the funeral. It was hard not being able to be in front, but they didn’t exactly look as the world would expect Peter Petrelli and Claire Rosen to look, mainly dead.
***
Karl followed them down the hill slowly, taking his time. He disliked funerals immensely because people expected you to be weepy and sentimental which he could not force himself to do.
His mouth opened in a cavernous yawn, which he quickly covered up, hoping no one had seen.
Claire had looked back at that moment and saw. In spite of her sadness, he was glad she giggled at the deer caught in the headlights look on his face. Karl grinned guiltily at her. He came up to stand next to her and took her hand.
“This is where I want to be,” he whispered in her ear.
She squeezed his hand in response.
And Karl meant it. He’d never found one person with whom he could always be around. Claire was it and he looked at her face, still so young, even though Myan had aged it to match his. He knew right then that he would die and she would live on. It made him glad that he wished for her sake that it didn’t have to be that way. But he knew they both had counted the consequences and that this was where they were supposed to be. It didn’t matter how much she’d changed him or the continual shocks to his worldview he received. He loved her and he was never leaving.
